Artificially created radioactive isotopes are created when some nuclei of isotopes that are not naturally radioactive are bombarded with certain high-energy particles. Each radioactive isotope is characterized by a half-life value, which relates to the manner in which the radioactive material becomes less radioactive over time, and activity, usually measured in Curies (Ci), or in units of Becquerel (Bq). One Ci unit equals 3.7×1010 disintegrations per second. One Bq unit equals 1 disintegration per second. More specifically, the half-life is the average length of time it takes for half of the nuclei in a portion of a radioactive material to decay. Some points of comparison/contrast between artificially created radioactive isotopes and natural radioactive isotopes are as follows: (i) both natural and artificial radioactive materials “decay” according to half-life values; and (ii) artificial radioactive isotopes generally have short half-life period values relative to natural radioactive isotopes.
There are conventional devices in the form of an integrated circuit chip (IC) with radioactive material mechanically connected to be in “radioactive communication” with the circuitry of the IC. In this document, a device where the radioactive source material is in radioactive communication with the circuitry will sometimes herein be described as having an “embedded source”. There are conventional devices in the form of an IC with radioactivity detectors (herein sometimes called “radiation detectors”, which should not be confused with, say, visible light detectors) in data communication within the IC. In this document, a device where the radioactive detector is in data communication with the circuitry will sometimes herein be described as having an “embedded detector”.